Sysco To Buy U.S. Foods, Gobbling 1/4 Of Foodservice Supply Industry

When you go out to eat at establishments ranging from the fanciest restaurants to a humble hot dog stand, there’s a pretty good chance that at least part of your meal came from either Sysco or U.S. Foods, the two biggest companies in the category. Now Sysco has announced plans to acquire the smaller company, and together they’ll have 25% of the food-service supply business.

They’ll pay $3.5 billion in stock and cash. Sysco actually wanted to take over its closest competitor seven years ago, but the price was too high and they demurred. Since then, they’ve been gobbling up smaller suppliers like so many chickpeas at a salad bar.